Letters from the March 25, 2006, issue of Science News
By Science News
Bee movie?
In the article about using harmonic reflected signals to track bees (“The Trouble with Chasing a Bee,” SN: 1/14/06, p. 23), I thought it was interesting to note that the original technology was created by the Russians as a spy device. The technology is still being used for a form of spying.
Dwight Elvey
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Birdy gurdy
I was surprised to read nothing about the timing of the songs when the birds are separated by distance (“Just Duet: Biologists puzzle over birds’ ensemble vocalizations,” SN: 1/28/06, p. 58). The ABCD duet would become A—BC—D (where the dashes represent the time delay due to distance) to the male and AB—CD to the female. The duet could be a distance-measurement tool for pairs wanting to keep track of how far apart they are.